Question: I need your help with a cruise booking that’s gone terribly wrong. More than two years ago, I tried to buy a Caribbean cruise for my parents though Travelocity. At the end of the process, the site crashed and I lost my reservation.
I called Travelocity and explained what happened. We finished the reservation by phone, and the online agency e-mailed a confirmation.
A month later, I received my credit card statement and noticed I was charged twice for the same cruise. I phoned my credit card company, which immediately credited me. I also informed Travelocity of the double booking and they reassured me that I would be receiving a full credit from NCL.
After the cruise, I received a letter from a collection agency demanding an additional $2,000 for the cruise. I told them the reservation was a mistake — a double booking.
We’ve been trading letters, and I’ve been pleading my case, but the agency is harassing me with phone calls at work. They’ve offered to settle the case for $1,200, but I don’t think I owe them anything. Can you please help me? — Sophia Mei, New York
Answer: Here’s how I see it: You booked one cruise, your parents took one cruise, so you should only have to pay for one cruise.
So why does NCL want your money?
Well, even though you thought your first reservation didn’t go through, and even though a Travelocity representative assured you the booking wasn’t consummated, NCL somehow still got the reservation. (That sometimes happens, which is why it’s always a good idea to call the travel company directly when something goes wrong — not just your travel agent or online agency.)
When your bank credited you $2,000 for the first cruise that NCL billed you for, it was essentially taking money out of the cruise line’s pocket. I can’t blame NCL for sending a collection agency after you.
But I can blame it for continuing to pursue you even after it should have been apparent that you were accidentally double-booked. What were they thinking? And why didn’t Travelocity step in and help you?
It should have.
I list the names of Travelocity’s customer-service contacts on my site and I have to tell you they are among the most responsive in the business. If you had brought this case to their attention, I believe they would have been able to fix this immediately.
Do you really want me to quote from the Travelocity Guarantee? Well, OK, but only because you asked.
“If something isn’t right, don’t let it ruin your trip,” it says. “Call us immediately instead! We’re here 24/7 to work with our partners to make it right, right away.”
You can read the whole promise here.
Certainly, I would have appealed to NCL’s executives, too. A simple review of its records would have revealed that you couldn’t have intentionally made both reservations.
Travelocity and NCL should have worked with you to find a solution instead of calling a collection agency. A collection agency is a last-ditch effort to recover money from a delinquent customer, and it’s used on deadbeats, not people who pay their bills.
As a last resort, you could have refused to pay your bill and added a note to your credit report — you can do that under federal law — but that’s not an ideal solution.
I contacted Travelocity on your behalf. It got in touch with NCL and called off the collection agency. You’re all clear.
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{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
That person’s mistake was disputing the charge with their credit card company before first contacting Travelocity and NCL. Always give the merchant the chance to refund the erroneous charge first! They’ll see the extra charge, see the extra booking, and all the files will be closed properly.
If you get the credit card company involved first, then the merchant only sees that you refused to pay an agreed-upon fee and will generally take action immediately to force you to pay. Disputing via your credit card makes it much harder for the merchant to figure out what’s going on because it’s sometimes a process and department completely separate from reservations.
Of course, if the merchant is recalcitrant and refuses to believe you (or their computers don’t show the charge), then it’s time to dispute the charge with your credit card.
The collection agency broke the law when they called your place of employment.
Re: Jay’s comment that the collection agency broke the law when it contacted the place of employment.
That is not true. The law is if you make it clear to the collection agency that contacting you at your place of employment could jeopardize your job, and that they are no longer to attempt to contact you at that number and then they continue to call you at your place of employment then that is breaking the law. Basically it is harassment that is specifically described in the fair debt collection act. You have to say no before it is considered illegal.